Interludes
by safetyinnumbness
Summary: The three stages of a secret relationship.


First posted to Dreamwidth and AO3. No real spoilers. Written for the ruby red prompt on my summer mini challenge table. Partly inspired by the three interlude tracks on Tove Lo's album. Any mistakes are my own and unintentional.

 _The sex: The passion in the beginning, it's always gonna be the best part of it_

These were the moments that Jack truly cherished. When Peggy was lying on top of him, spent and dishevelled. Her normally pristine ruby red lipstick smudged across her lips as well as marking his skin with the love bites that she liked to leave as a reminder that he was hers and no one else's.

Jack carefully tucked a few errant strands of hair behind Peggy's ear. "So beautiful," he whispered lovingly as she slowly drifted off to sleep. He liked to tell her that whenever he had the opportunity, although she did try to runaway from him the first time he told her and after back and forth of idle threats and gentle coaxing she told him the reason it made her uncomfortable. She hadn't been complimented on her looks very often and tended to retreat whenever she was, yet she made an exception for Jack because he meant every word he said when they were alone.

Feeling her weight shift from on his to beside him gave him a little relief but he missed the closeness of the act. He drew her closer to him feeling her breath on his neck helped him to finally fall asleep too.

 _The love: And then you freak out cause suddenly you need this person…._

Peggy Carter wasn't in the habit of needing anyone because she had learned at a young age that it was better to be self sufficient than reliant on another. Somehow Jack Thompson had gotten past that particular barrier and ripped the lesson plan up. It was the first time in a very long time that she found herself needing someone. him and he knew it.

Their clandestine activities had been his way of quietly, yet rather cockily disproving her assertions that she couldn't be with him and remain self sufficient. She liked the way he tended to her every need, not that she'd ever tell him that to his face because she'd never hear the end of the way he broke down her heavily armoured barriers.

Peggy was staring out of the office window admiring the colours of the changing sky from night to day. She softly smiled when she felt jack's arms encircle her, his chest pressed against her back, lips gently brushing against her cheek. "What are you thinking about?"

Peggy carefully turned to face him not wanting to break the embrace. "Just us, darling."

"Us," Jack said as though the word was a poisoned chalice. In the past he would move on as quickly as possible whenever a girl used that word to describe their relationship but with Peggy he didn't, he couldn't. She was the one who made it worthwhile for him by giving him space when he needed it and laughter, with a side of bourbon when the days were too long and stressful to cope with.

They quickly separated, both frowning upon hearing the familiar clank of Daniel's crutch on the wooden floors.

 _The pain: And then there's no good way to end things cause it's ending, y'know?_

The tension in the office had reached an unbearable point, with Rose and Daniel often commenting on how miserable their friends were now that the relationship had inadvertently become public knowledge and they opted split up after the sting operation at the warehouse had gone wrong.

It had taken Peggy three days to visit Jack in the hospital after he got injured in the botched operation. She watched him from the end of the bed for several minutes before she had worked up enough courage to sit with him.

Feeling his bed dip, jack instinctively grabbed Peggy's hand and held it in his for the duration of her visit. "We gotta talk," Jack told her.

"I shouldn't have reacted," she gloomily admitted.

"I would have done the same thing."

For a moment Peggy let that sink in, glancing around the scarcely occupied ward before speaking again. "What happens now?" she asked, curious to find out if he wanted the same thing she did.

"Don't know," Jack replied honestly. He wanted her and for them to be together but he also know how the office politics worked when it came to romances. She was beginning to look nervous and he'd only seen that look once before. "Want you. Want us."

"But you're worried about how the agency will deal with our relationship."

Jack nodded, flashing a small thankful smile that they were thinking along the same lines. He also knew that he would have done the same thing had the roles been reversed.

Peggy let out a morbid laugh. "You get stabbed in the side and I out us to half of the office. It isn't quite how I'd planned to tell people, if and when we did go public."

Jack pointed to the drawer beside his bed. "Open it," he instructed. Peggy leant forward, gently opening the drawer she easily spotted the jewellers box. "Was going to..." he paused to get a much needed cough out.

Peggy didn't need to hear the final words of that sentence, she knew what they were. "Why?"

Jack shrugged. "Wanted us to be together." Peggy bent forward giving him a tender kiss that told him it was a mistake to spend money on one piece of jewellery.

Breaking away from the lip lock, she said, "I'll see you when you're back at work."

Tears were slowly falling from Jack's eyes as he watched her walk away. His gut told him that this was more to do with the way he got injured and not their relationship which had been pretty good until a few days ago.

Jack was becoming increasingly irritated by the pitying stares and the not quite whispered comments from the other men in the office. Needing to get away to calm down, he went down to the file room for a few minutes peace.

He found himself in the furthest corner of the rarely used space, letting out a grunt he had been holding in for the last hour. He really needed a punching bag to let his anger out on. "It shouldn't be like this," he said out loud, the echo a sharp reminder that he was alone again. Or so he thought.

"I agree Jack, it shouldn't be like this," Peggy replied, acknowledging his statement from behind the row of shelving facing him.

Too hurt to face her, he made to leave, refusing to look at her as he tried to figure out where else in the building he could go for some quiet time. "I love you, Peggy," he mumbled while staring at his feet.

Peggy reached out for him but he moved too quickly to feel the familiar touch knowing that those fingers would be haunting his dreams for a long time. Putting on her tough girl façade, Peggy said, "For what it's worth Jack, I love you too."

With that last declaration they went their separate ways, neither daring to look at the other for fear that the pain they felt would be too much to bare.


End file.
